We’re a third of the way into October, time to begin my Halloween special for this year. H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds has been a part of my child and adulthood for as long as I can remember. So for this Halloween, I’m doing a trilogy-article celebration of how this genre defining story has endured for 130 years.

I’m going to be taking a look at just how that original H. G. Wells story has been adapted over the years with things like prog rock music albums, videogames and of course, movies & TV shows. Oh, I’ll also be doing a deep-dive into the phenomenon that was the 1938 radio adaptation by Orson Welles.

I’m starting this War of the Worlds celebration by looking at some of the best and worst adaptions of the book on both the big and small screen. Now, I’m not going to do these in chronological order, more just a (kind of) random order as they pop into my head. However, I do feel that I should start with the first-ever screen adaptation of the classic tale.

The War of the Worlds

Released in 1953 and directed by Byron Haskin. Starring Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester and Ann Robinson as Sylvia Van Buren. As with any American adaption of an English story, they changed and updated quite a lot. No longer set in Victorian era England, The War of the Worlds now takes place in current (1953) era Southern California. There are major character changes too, not just names, but also attitudes and motivation. For instance, in the original story, Wells didn’t paint religion is a particularly great light. He never lambasted it or anything (he was an unapologetic atheist), but he just never used religion as strength and had a holy character come across as a bit cowardly. In this film, religion plays a bigger part, the pastor in this dies a martyr, and the climatic ending takes place in and around a church. There’s even suggestion that god helped to kill the aliens in the end because it was god who put the bacteria, that ended the aliens, into Earth’s atmosphere.

It is all a bit too much “American” at times and the forced region elements do come across as terribly ham-fisted. “God bless America” and all that crap. No more iconic tripod fighting machines either. In this version the aliens have these flying ships instead. Or do they? It does seem like the machines are flying, but it has been said that they do have “invisible legs” (I’m guessing it was too costly/tricky to do convincing walking machines as a special effect in 1953?) and if you look closely when the first machine is seen fully emerging, you can see that the machine does have three legs. There are three lighting-like things. They look like they’re flying because the legs are “invisible”. At one point in the film and when hiding in a building, Dr. Forrester says, “There’s a machine standing right along side of us.” Standing, and it left footprints in the ground too. So they were tripods and not flying machines.

Anyway, as sicky “God bless America” as they made this flick, as stiff/stage play-like as the 1950s acting is, I do really like this one and I have a lot of fond memories of it too. I remember watching this more than once as a kid, and I remember it scaring the crap out of me too. The fighting machines, the heat ray, that was pretty terrifying to 6-year-old me in the 1980s. That last image of the alien hand reaching out of the fighting machine as it dies is something that is ingrained into my subconscious. It’s cheesy, there are massive character changes, it’s been Americanised to fuck and aside from the basics of Martians coming to Earth, the story bares very little relation to the source material (no red weed) and it misses on pretty much all of the novel’s themes. Yet… I do adore this version. I’m a fan of that whole Americana, 1950s, B-movie, sci-fi thing that was going on at the time and this was one of the better ones.

War of the Worlds

This was a TV show that ran for two seasons between 1988 and 1990. What makes this one quite interesting is that it is a direct sequel to the 1953 movie. The basic gist is that the bacteria didn’t actually kill the aliens at the end of the film, it put them into suspended animation. The alien attack was then covered up by the government and thanks to a convenient plot device called “selective amnesia”, most people have no recollection of the Martian attack from 1953 and anyone that does remember is labelled as being crazy. Oh, and this series changes the aliens from Martians to creatures from a fictional planet called Mor-Tax. Anyway, now in 1988 a terrorist group called People’s Liberation Party accidentally bring the aliens out of suspended animation, who then begin to possess human bodies and start their plants to take over Earth (again).

One of the main characters in this show is Dr. Harrison Blackwood, whose parents were killed in the 1953 attack, and he was then adopted by Dr. Clayton Forrester, who was the main character in the 1958 flick. This show also managed to get Ann Robinson to return as Sylvia van Buren from the film too. Other than that, the connections between the film and the show are quite light and this could’ve really been about a completely unrelated story. It does bring back the alien designs and the flying (they just had “invisible” legs) fighting machines too. But is it any good? For me, I found this very hit and miss. As with pretty much every American TV show, it goes on way too long. There are 24 episodes in the first season alone, and several of the episodes do feel like filler, but it is still fairly watchable. Season two is a complete mess though. This show very much reminded me of the V TV series, but not as good. It’s okay though, worth a watch.

War of the Worlds

Gonna jump ahead to a more recent adaption now. This Steven Spielberg directed and Tom Cruise staring version came out in 2005… it’s been 20 years already? Me and my older brother went to the cinema to watch this one, and it was my brother who really got me into The War of the Worlds to begin with. But I’ll get into that in more detail when I do the Jeff Wayne musical article. Anyway, this version does the same as the 1953 flick, in that it Americanises and modernises everything… while Tom Cruise does a lot of running. Unlike the 1953 film, this one does follow the source material a little closer. The fighting machines are very clearly massive tripods this time, the red weed is here, and there are updates to classic/iconic moments form the book, like the fella going crazy and wanting to start a brave new world underground. So yeah, this adaption does get quite a few things right.

I do like this take on the story, but it does have a few problems. I feel this one has a really strong start (the arrival of the aliens is amazing), but it does begin to lose some steam as you get past the halfway point. The bit with the son who runs over the hill into a MASSIVE explosion and (if I recall) five alien fighting machines… but he turns up at the end completely unharmed with zero explanation as to how he survived. Nah, he should be dead. As much as I don’t like to rag on child actors, Dakota Fanning is really fucking annoying in this, the screaming! I think it would’ve made more sense to have kept Tom’s character, but have him be a loner who crosses paths with other characters, like in the book. It was pointless his having a son, to have him disappear into a MASSIVE explosion… and just reappear at the end without a scratch on him. And the daughter was dead weight too. I was just not a fan of the whole sub-plot of the bad father being crap with his own kids, completely redundant.

Still, this is one of the better adaptions of the book, even with the Americanisation and modern setting. May as well throw in a little trivia for you. The grandparents who show up at the end of this film are played by Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, who played Dr. Clayton Forrester and Sylvia Van Buren (respectively) in the 1953 film. This was also Gene Barry’s final film role before he passed away in 2009.

Also, did you know that this was only one of three War of the Worlds films released in 2005? There was H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (from Pendragon Pictures). This version is even closer to the source material as it is set in Victorian England and it follows an unnamed protagonist. However, it is really low-budget, has awful effects work and even worse acting. The third film from 2005 was H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds (from The Asylum). Now, if you are not familiar with movies from The Asylum production company then count yourself lucky. They make some of the worst films ever, and this one is no exception. I couldn’t even find a trailer, but the whole film is free on The Asylum’s YouTube channel… if you dare. As bad as this version is, it got a sequel called War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave in 2008.

Independence Day

I have a couple of War of the Worlds films now, that aren’t titled War of the Worlds and both released in the same year. Yeah, they can change the title but we all know that the films are definitely based on, or inspired, by H. G. Wells’ timeless classic. Released in 1996 and starring Will Smith in the role that would make him a Hollywood superstar… then he’d slap Chris Rock at the Oscars a few years later. This flick was a massive hit and the big summer blockbuster of the year. It’s quite bizarre as I have looked into the production and making of this one, and I can’t seem to find writer/director Roland Emmerich mentioning that this is based on War of the Worlds, even though it very clearly is.

Once more, Americanised and given a modern setting. Aliens come to Earth and wreak havoc and destruction. No tripods or red weed, but this is still very much War of the Worlds, right down to the aliens being taken out by a virus, a computer virus this time. The cast is great, with Jeff Goldblum and all of his “Umms” and “Ahhhs”, Bill Pullman as the president, Randy Quaid’s alcoholic farmer who was abducted by aliens. But the standout star is Will Smith and his easy to love charm. The action is great, the effects work is top-notch and very memorable. One of the better modern takes of the story and even though this is shallow with a a paper thin plot, it’s still great. Independence Day is just one of the most perfect “unplug ‘yer brain” films ever. But the less said about the truly terrible sequel, the better.

Mars Attacks!

My second War of the Worlds film that’s not titled War of the Worlds. Mars Attacks! was directed by Tim Burton and released in 1996. Now, this film wasn’t directly based on H. G. Wells’ story. In fact, it was directly based on a set of trading cards from 1962. However, the cards were inspired by the original The War of the Worlds novel and Tim Burton based the style of this film on the 1953 War of the Worlds flick, he wanted to recapture that sci-fi, B-movie feel. The basic plot of Martians coming to Earth to rule is pretty much the core of War of the Worlds, but Tim Burton puts his own unique, stylistic dark stamp on it.

The cast here is an impressive ensemble with huge names like Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Michael J. Fox, Pam Grier, Rod Steiger, Natalie Portman and Jack Black. But the main star is Jack Nicholson playing two characters, the president and a sleezy casino owner. Oh, I’d better not forget that Welsh singer, Tom Jones in this this too, that’s quite unusual. It is an immense cast. Still, as impressive as the cast is, it’s really the CGI Martians that steal the show. Mars Attacks! is a brilliant throwback to that 1950s, sci-fi, B-movie genre that I adore. A dark comedy about malevolent aliens and the stupid humans who can’t a seem to grasp that the Martians have come to Earth to destroy humanity.

That scene where the aliens land in Nevada to make contact, to then decimate 90% of the humans with their ray guns is hilarious. But even funnier is how Jack Nicholson’s president still thinks that they want peace, much to the chagrin to his war general (played by Rod Steiger) who knows that the Martians need to be killed. So the president sets up another meeting with the aliens at United States Congress… only for them to massacre 90% of the people… again. Even after this, the president still thinks the Martians are peaceful and he tries to reason with them… and they kill him. I like how it’s not so much that the aliens are super intelligent, it’s more a case that the humans (especially those in power) are really fucking stupid, a bit like real life. Much like The War of the Worlds, the Martians are not taken out by advanced technology or militaristic weapons, they’re taken out by something rather mundane. It’s not bacteria or a virus, but it is something equally as every day that we humans take for granted. Mars Attacks! is stupid, really funny stupid and those little green men are hilarious. “Ack, ack. Ack!”

War of the Worlds: The True Story

This 2012 film has one of the most interesting concepts of any adaption so far. Using the famous Orson Welles radio broadcast that fooled people into thinking that Martians really had come to take over the planet as inspiration, this film presents the events described in H. G. Wells’ novel as being true. Presented as a “documentary” with interviews from the last surviving witness. Remember that 2005 H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds film from Pendragon Pictures that I previously mentioned? The one that was closer to the novel with the Victorian setting and everything, but really bad acting and effects due to the low budget? Well, this is from the same production company and same director. In fact, this film even uses re-edited footage from that 2005 H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds movie.

Honestly, this is a good watch. It’s rough, due to the smaller budget, but I can’t help but admire how well it all came together. It does a great job of trying to convince that The War of the Worlds really did happen in Victorian England. I think the main problem is that, because that Orson Welles radio broadcast has gone down in history, doing a faux-documentary making out that it really happened doesn’t quite work. If that Welles radio broadcast didn’t exist, than I think this film would’ve made a bigger impact. I’m not saying that it would’ve fooled people (maybe some Americans), but I do think it would’ve been noticed more and celebrated as being an original idea. Still, if Orson Welles never did that radio broadcast, then this film wouldn’t exist. But yeah, War of the Worlds: The True Story is worth checking out for some low budget fun.

The Great Martian War 1913-1917

Here’s another interesting take on the classic tale. This one aired on the History channel in 2013 as a fictional docudrama that takes place in an alternate history. Instead of the Great War with Germany and the Central Powers attacking, it’s Martians. Using actual WW I footage, but re-edited to include Martians and the tripod fighting machines. Throw in some interviews with relatives (actors) of those who survived, first-hand accounts of the Great Martian War and even expert “facts” from respected historians, and you have a really well made docudrama.

There is the questionable element of using actual WW I footage and manipulating it for a bit of entertainment. We are talking about real soldiers who really lost their lives in a real war, being used to tell a fictional story about an alien attack. I guess that you’ll have to question your own moral compass as to whether that’s in bad taste or not. In all honestly, it’s a really well made “documentary”, it feels genuine and of the attempts at convey that The War of the Worlds really did happen (see above), this is the best attempt yet. The witnesses telling their stories are quite convincing, the melding of real WW I footage and the CGI work of the tripods is great. I honestly think you could show this to someone not as well versed in what either The War of the Words or the Great War was, and possibly fool them into thinking it really happened. You can watch the whole documentary here, it’s pretty good.

The War of the Worlds

My last two picks are two TV shows. This 2019 version is more of a mini-series as it only has three episodes. This adaption changes it from Victorian England to Edwardian England. Almost, they almost got it right. There’s a good cast here and on paper, everything sounds great… on paper. What is bizarre about this version is that even though there are only three episodes, it is woefully dull with a lot of nothing going on for 90% of it. It really draaaaaaaaags. The main plot revolves around a journalist called George leaving his wife to start a new life with another woman, quite a massive taboo back then. The alien stuff seems to take a back seat.

There are multiple long and lingering close up shots of characters, and a ton of pointless slow motion. I swear, there’s only about 60 minutes of footage here, but all the lingering close ups and slow motion drags it out to three, one-hour-long episodes of banality. Look, I’m not trying to make out that H. G. Wells’ novel is a deep, multi-layered story. While it does have allusions to Social Darwinism and all that “survival of the fittest” stuff, it is still just about Martians attacking Earth, and that is what any adaption should focus on. This version doesn’t. It’s a real shame because, the cast is good, the effects work is (mostly) great and what little alien action is here, is done well. It’s just that everything else is shit and the forced plot is utterly redundant. Oh the the horse riding scenes very obviously used a fake horse, you can really tell. It’s quite amusing.

War of the Worlds

This second TV show also began in 2019 and ended in 2022. Unlike the previous show, this one has a more contemporary setting and goes on for three seasons with 24 episodes in total. You don’t need this much time to tell the story of The War of the Worlds. I do have to admit to liking this take more than the previous TV show attempt… at first. But honestly, I got bored by the fourth episode and struggled to get through the rest of the season. I did force myself to season two, but then gave up after two episodes. Why? Because this isn’t War of the Worlds. When you change the original story to the point of it no longer being recognisable (as this version does), I have to question what is the point of even calling this War of the Worlds? This could’ve been a totally new IP with a different title and nobody would’ve noticed. This isn’t War of the Worlds, it’s a TV show about aliens… and it’s not even that.

The 1988 TV show had more in common with The War of the Worlds than this does, and that was a sequel to a 1953 film that had the bare minimum in common with The War of the Worlds. I know that my pick of Mars Attacks! wasn’t a direct adaption of the novel. It was inspired by the 1953 film, which itself wasn’t that close to the book, so it was twice removed. Even so, Mars Attacks! did have some War of the Worlds DNA. This show has nothing in common with War of the Worlds, and I have no idea why it has the title. I can only assume it was written and produced with either no title or a different one, but then someone got the idea to call it War of the Worlds to add some familiar IP flavour, and because the book was in the public domain.

Okay, so I have to do a few (dis)honourable mentions of other adaptions at the end here. Let me get it out of the way first. There was a new War of the Worlds released this year and it got lambasted for how bad it was. And it was bad. I’m not going to dwell on it because, I’ve already reviewed it right here. There was a 1981 Polish film called Wojna światów – następne stulecie (The War of the Worlds: Next Century), which I can’t seem to find to watch it. From what I gather, it takes place in the distant future of 1999 with Martians attacking Earth in late December, days before the year 2000. It doesn’t seem to be a direct adaption of H. G. Wells’ story, I think it is just “inspired by”.

War of the Worlds: The Attack was released in 2023 and it is yet another modern take on the story. It is also another low budget effort that is let down by some awful acting and dogy effects work. It is a bit of a shame as this version gets some things right, like being filmed in England and even on location at Horsell Common, which is in Wells’ original novel. This is the only adaption to film at an actual location from the book. But it gets even more wrong and I suspect that the script was written using AI, that’s how bad it is. The trailer is far better than the film. Then there is War of the Worlds: Goliath, and this one is quite interesting. First, it’s animated. Second, it’s a sequel to the original novel set in an alternate reality 15 years after that first Martian attack. Third, it has a nice retro-future setting. Alas, it’s all rather dull. A damn shame too because, it’s a really great concept with some amazing animation, but the story is woeful. You can watch the whole film here, if you’re interested.

Finally, perhaps one of the more interesting ideas for a War of the Worlds movie. 1975’s The Night That Panicked America is a dramatization of the fallout of the famous Orson Welles radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. I suppose that technically, this film is a remake as it was originally a TV show called The Night America Trembled and first broadcast in 1957. I quite like this one as exploring the Orson Welles radio broadcast is something that interests me. Obviously, this is an overly-dramatized. made for TV movie and not exactly 100% accurate. Still, it’s not a bad watch and one way to explore the mass panic that the infamous radio broadcast was responsible for.

Speaking of that Orson Welles radio broadcast, I think it’s about time I did my deep-dive look into it.